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Blueprint for
supply chain
visibility
Service-oriented architecture
can help drive agility, supplier
collaboration and demand-
driven replenishment
Supply Chai
Managemen
IBM Institute for Business Value
IBM Global Business Services
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IBM Institute for Business ValueIBM Global Business Services, through the IBM Institute for Business Value,
develops fact-based strategic insights for senior executives around critical public
and private sector issues. This executive brief is based on an in-depth study by
the Institutes research team. It is part of an ongoing commitment by IBM Global
Business Services to provide analysis and viewpoints that help companies realize
business value. You may contact the authors or send an e-mail to [email protected]
for more information.
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1
Effective supply chains are agile, with the capability to quickly respond to
shifts in supply, production and demand. As well, they can enable companies
to move rapidly into emerging markets, while simultaneously allowing them
to take advantage of global sources of supply, production, distribution andtalent. This flexibility and responsiveness, in turn, can fuel sustainable growth.
Companies can facilitate the creation of agile supply chains by establishing a
blueprint that enables visibility of all aspects of their globally integrated supply
chains. We believe service-oriented architecture can provide the foundation for
that blueprint.
Blueprint for supply chain visibilityService-oriented architecture can help drive agility, supplier collaboration
and demand-driven replenishmentBy Karen Butner
Blueprint for supply chain visibility
IntroductionThe global financial crisis, energy cost fluc-
tuations, downward sloping production and
consumer expenditures are all volatility indica-
tors that are changing daily. Meanwhile, the
complexities of increased global sourcing,
lead time and quality issues, logistics network
constraints, customer demand variability are
compounding the situation. We all know the
story. Companies are seeking relief.
To combat these new challenges, many
companies are shifting from a push supply
chain model to a demand-driven, customer-centric model. The desire to become
demand-driven requires sophisticated, flex-
ible responsiveness at every point along the
supply chain from sourcing and procuremen
to consumption. A customer-driven supply
chain has several objectives:
Speeding new, high-margin products to
customers while obtaining realtime visibility
to supply chain and customer events
Enabling realtime collaboration and data
exchange
Synchronizing supply and demand while
balancing inventory exposure across the
supply chain
Streamlining and increasing effectiveness of
global sourcing and supplier management,
including developing deeper supplier rela-
tionships with more sophisticated integration
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Adopting an enterprise asset management
discipline to better realize value from criticalassets
Understanding and optimizing product
lifecycle to make developing, launching,
selling and servicing products more compet-
itive and more profitable.
Figure 1 shows a model of a supply chain with
products and information moving from supply
sources, through production and throughout
the pipeline to customer delivery and post-
sale service. Simultaneously, across each
functional area (e.g., plan, source, produce)
there is need for increased visibility.
Technical obstacles, however, can limit
increased visibility in demand-driven supply
chains. Many application architectures are
hardwired, made up of hundreds even
thousands of custom-coded connections,
each of which must be recoded every time
a connection or something it connects is
altered in any way. For an organization with
hundreds of trading partners, implementingrapid change on top of this foundation can be
a formidable, time-consuming task.
This IBM Institute for Business Value executive
brief will explore the following topics:
The business imperatives that require
greater supply chain flexibility and respon-
siveness through enhanced visibility
New business strategies, capabilities
and competencies that can improve a
companys supply chain operations but mayseem unreachable in existing technology
environments
A service-oriented architecture (SOA) tech-
nology strategy that can help provide better
and faster business change and responsive-
ness
The first steps and considerations that
companies should consider to begin
migration to an SOA environment.
FIGURE 1.
End-to-end supply chain visibility model.
Flows: Product, process, information, cash and capital management
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
Customers andchannels (e.g.,stores, brokers)
Suppliers andmanuacturers
Service ater salesmanagement
Efcientlyprocessreturns
Managespareparts inventories
Visibilitytoentirereverse logisticsprocesses
Service
Multiple channelsand customertouch points
Singlesourcedashboard toview overallperformance
Trackingfromorder to delivery
Knowledgeoftotal pipelinecustomerinventory
Sell
Monitoringshipment status
Monitorshipmentstatus throughoutpipeline withproactive eventnotication
Improvedabilityto identifyshort- and over-
shipments
Deliver
Integration withmanuacturerssystems
Accesstoordercommitments anddelivery schedules
Visibilityintoorder productionstatus
Make
Multisource ordersand ulfllment
Abilitytotrackpurchase ordersthrough theirentire lifecycle
Knowledgeoftotalpipeline supplierinventory
Source
Synchronizingsupply and demand
Integratingcustomerforecasts anddemand withtheir suppliersto plan logisticsrequirements
Participationincustomers salesand operationsplanning process
Plan
2 IBM Global Business Services
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3 Blueprint for supply chain visibility
Blueprint for supply chain visibilityService-oriented architecture can help drive agility, supplier collaboration and
demand-driven replenishment
Adapting to the changing landscape
Todays business environment changesquickly. The supply chain leader must deal
with changing market boundaries and new
channels. Companies are quickly realizing a
global market means more than duties and
currency conversion. Contract manufacturing
and other sourcing and manufacturing strat-
egies with multiple tiers and partners have
increased the complexity of the modern
sourcing chain. The distribution side has also
grown more complex, as logistics networks
have evolved to multitiered strategies.
Throughout the entire supply chain, informa-
tion continues to grow more important, but
also more distributed and harder to rein.
Economic flows are increasingly multidirec-
tional, placing fundamental pressures on
supply chain performance. From the demand
perspective, globalization is changing market
boundaries and opening up new channels
for sales and distribution as well as encour-
aging new market entrants and aggressive
competition. Customers continue to haveaggressive demands for differentiated prod-
ucts and services, while product lifecycles
are shortening. Meanwhile, organizations
feel supply shocks as sourcing strategies
continue to evolve toward lower-cost jurisdic-
tions. Accordingly, logistics networks have
also become more complex. We believe
the combination of these factors is causing
increasing reliance on specialization within
the supply chain for differentiated capabili-
ties, better integration and more collaboration
among the expanding network of partners
(e.g., suppliers, service providers and contract
manufacturers). This calls for new business
models that encompass more flexibility, agilityand innovation.
SOA: A foundation for agility andvisibilitySOA has emerged as a means for supply
chain managers to transform the business
model, enabling demand-driven synchroniza-
tion of supply chain planning and execution
activities in collaboration with suppliers,
service providers and partners. SOA inte-
grates repeatable component business
services, allowing companies the opportunity
to balance demand and supply, as well as
optimize customer service and inventory levels
by managing supply chain events in realtime
across organizational boundaries.
Key concept: Service-oriented architecture
SOAisatechnologystrategyandarchitecture
model in which discrete bundles of software
functionality are componentized and delivered
to other functions and systems as services,
enabling different applications to use commonparts. In turn, new applications can be built by
assembling these reusable components. This
enables companies to build new technological
capabilitiesmorequickly,changetheiroperations
more rapidly and better preserve the existing value
of current systems.
SOA is a business-driven IT architectural
approach that takes everyday business appli-
cations and information and breaks them
down into individual functions and processes
called services. Each of these services can
be mixed, matched and reused to create new,
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4 IBM Global Business Services
flexible business processes to address new
corporate priorities. The services then can
be made available to others in the extended
network such as other departments, trading
partners and customers. And when processes
are altered, companies can use existing,assembled, composite services and just
snap-in the additional new process, short-
ening the response time.
SOA is designed to speed up new application
development and often grants legacy systems
a new lease on life. By putting new interfaces
onto older systems, they can continue to
coexist and interoperate with the latest gener-
ation of information technologies.
The SOA blueprint for supply chainvisibilityThe SOA approach integrates people,
processes and information. An SOA strategy
helps simplify integration throughout the entire
supply chain and can enable companies torespond faster to day-to-day disruptive events
and balance trade-offs.
Demand-driven replenishmentFigure 2 shows an example of the processes
employed by a retail company that has
planned a major promotion involving a
bundled offer: buy the new electronics product
at a high price point and get 50 percent off
the accessory. Both products are in a Vendor-
Managed-Inventory (VMI) program. Before
FIGURE 2.
Demand-driven replenishment in retail environment.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
Develop plan,demand
forecast andpromotions
Developmanufacturing
supply anddeliveryschedule
Notifydelivery and
advancedshipping
notice(ASN)
Shipmerchandise
to retailer
Transport logisticsfrom supplier to
retailer distributioncenter(DC)
Transportlogistics fromretailer DC to
store
Placepurchase
orders
Performallocation ofmerchandise
Invoicematch, pay
supplier
Receivemerchandisefrom supplier
Based on storeallocations/
replenishmentspick/pack
Shipmerchandise
to store
Update sales,inventory
Receiveand display
merchandise
Sell merchandise,provide point-of-sale(POS)salestransaction log
(TLOG)information
Merchandise,promotions planning and
forecasting systemsMerchandise operationsand management
systemsWarehousing, supplychain, logistics system StorePOSandplanningsystems
Supplier has no earlyvisibility to plans
forecasts, promotions
Pre-allocationsdonothold,duetohighPOtoASNvariance...DCll
rates suffer
Inventory imbalancescauses the promotions
to suffer resulting inlost sales
Immediatefeedbacktothe supplier on inventorylevels,stock-outsare
lackingHigherpurchaseorder(PO)toASNvariancesincesuppliercannotkeepupwithdemand
duetolackofvisibility
Syste
ms
Retailer
(Store)
Retailer
(DC)
Retailer
Carrier
Supplier
1. Plan 2. Merchandise 3. Distribute 4. Sell
3 4 6
7 12
2 5 9
8 10 11
15
13 14
1
SOA integrates
people processesand information and
is designed to speed
up new application
development.
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5 Blueprint for supply chain visibility
the promotion, the accessory was managed
to a 90-percent service level. The accessory
vendor was not made aware of the promo-
tion. The new product was replenished using
a new arrival push strategy, and an effective
service level was maintained of 99 percent.But the retailer quickly ran out of inventory of
the accessory item in some stores. Combined
with the inability to locate and transfer inven-
tory among stores, the promotion resulted in
disgruntled customers and lost sales. Had
the point-of-sale data (POS) been communi-
cated to the planners and suppliers in a timely
manner, potential out-of-stock situations could
have been proactively monitored to allow redi-
rection of existing inventory.
With an underlying SOA enabling new and
sophisticated triggering capabilities, these
interactions can be managed more effectively.
Disruptions in any one of these would create
an event notification, alert or performance
failure message to a business dashboard.In this example, the POS data of actual
customer purchases would immediately
trigger a replenishment order. The supply/
demand synchronization service initiates the
process to receive POS and promotions data.
Analytical models evaluate the accuracy of the
original promotion forecast and compare it to
current inventory and supplier commitments.
Shipment and distribution events are moni-
tored for any disruptions, and inventory in the
pipeline is constantly monitored (see Figure 3)
FIGURE 3.
Using demand signals to synchronize supply.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
Develop plan,demand
forecast andpromotions
Developmanufacturing
supply anddelivery schedule
NotifydeliveryandASN
Shipmerchandise
to retailer
Transportlogistics from
supplier toretailer DC
Transportlogistics fromretailer DC to
store
Placepurchase
orders
Performallocation ofmerchandise
Invoicematch, pay
supplier
Receivemerchandisefrom supplier
Based on storeallocations/
replenishmentspick/pack
Shipmerchandise
to store
Update sales,inventory
Receiveand display
merchandise
Sell merchandise,providePOSsales(TLOG)information
Merchandise,promotions planning and
forecasting systems
Merchandise operationsand management
systems
Warehousing, supplychain, logistics system
StorePOSandISPsystems
With adequate visibility to plans,forecasts and promotions,
supplier has a better chance inmeeting demands
DCllratesimprovesince pre-allocationsgenerally hold true
Inventoryimbalances are
reduced
Frequent visibility toVMI inventory levels
Demand/
forecast
Promotions
Systems
Retailer
(Store)
Retailer
Retailer
Carrier
Supplier
1. Plan 2. Merchandise 3. Distribute 4. Sell
Develop supplybased on
forecasts andpromotions
Forecast Promotions
Inventorylevels
In-seasonadjustments
Deliveryschedule
Trailerstatus Sales Stock-outs
Reneshipmentsbased onsales data
InventoryLevel
Stock-outs
4 5 7
8 13
3 6 10
9 11 12
16
14 15
2 17
1
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SOA can help create a more flexible and
responsive environment, enabling access to
supply chain information from many different
partners, such as POS transactions, revised
forecasts based upon actual demand, new
production plans from suppliers and capacityconstraints of logistics providers. Acting upon
and sharing this information allows the supply
chain to become much more responsive to
shifts in market demand.
Supplier collaboration in a manuacturingenvironmentLets examine another scenario in the
consumer electronics area. In this example,
an OEM works with various suppliers to
source components for a product and then
engages with a contract manufacturer to buildthe product, which ultimately ships to various
customer segments.
Although the company has the ability to
connect with supply chain partners, it lacks a
fully integrated, scalable and flexible environ-
ment. The underlying technology has been
cobbled together over time and impedes the
ability to meet the ever-increasing demands
of a rapidly changing marketplace not to
mention realtime reaction to the demand and
supply shocks. Efforts to share information
and smooth the flow of goods between the
multitiered component supply base have often
failed or fallen short of expectations, causing
production schedule disruptions and customer
shipment delays. The inability to provide
sustainable visibility of supplier commits and
inventory status has resulted in lost sales and
increased operating expense (carrying costs,
transportation costs and idle lines as a result
of poor forecasts to suppliers).
The electronics OEM decided to implement a
supplier collaboration hub to provide visibility
to key supplier information such as supply
(components), commit dates and lead times.
Supplier position is compared to demand
forecasts, actual demand and current pipe-line inventory levels (work in progress, stock
and in-transit). Using advanced analytics and
statistical analysis, a recommended outlook is
then developed. A dashboard reports inven-
tory performance information along with alerts
if targets will not be met because of suppliers,
logistics or other constraints. SOA enables this
capability by using repeatable services to
define inventory position and to integrate key
(and required) information from a multitude of
suppliers across the globe (see Figure 4).
With a service-oriented architecture, the
company can create a more flexible and
responsive environment for its supply chain
partners. It can now have access to supply
chain information from many different partners
such as a revised forecast based upon actual
demand, a suppliers new production plan and
a logistics providers delivery constraint. By
sharing and acting upon information, the OEM
can become much more responsive to shifts
in supply and meeting market demand.
Virtual Command CenterWe believe the lack of visibility to transporta-
tion and distribution events may be the largest
of supply chain visibility problems. Todays
supply chains span geographies, involve
multiple logistics service providers, multiple
modes, advanced security-regulated import
and export requirements and complex value-
added distribution strategies. Fragmented
With access to supply
chain information from
different partners,
SOA can help providea flexible and
responsive supply chain
environment.
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7 Blueprint for supply chain visibility
information only exacerbates the problem.
Together, these factors can lead to:
Lackofvisibilitytotransportationstatus
frequent unexpected delivery failures can
erode customer satisfaction
Delayedreactiontimeproblemscanbe
discovered after the fact or after damage
has already been done
Integrationofshippingandotherenterprise
applications (order management systems,
enterprise resource planning, warehouse
management systems, etc.) application
silos may not readily share information,
necessitating repetitive manual data entry
Inconsistentcarrier/mode/laneusage
policies multiple transportation plannerscan make independent mode and carrier
selection decisions
Limitedcontrolofassetslimitedknowledge
of asset utilization because of fragmented
reporting capabilities
Laborintensivetrackandtraceprocesses
manual processes executed by large
clerical/management staffs
Higher-than-necessarytransportationspend
in expedited shipments and transfers.
What we believe is needed is a combination o
business processes and technology enablers
that effectively monitor and evaluate logistics
activities across the entire supply chain and
provide the ability to integrate the multitude
of logistics parties, events and performance
criteria into actionable responses. We call this
capability a Virtual Command Center.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
FIGURE 4.
Visibility into supplier capacity plans.
Financials
Promotionplanning
Markdownmanagement
Supply chainvisibility
event engine
Allocation/replenishment
Purchaseordermanagement
Transportationmanagement
Logisticscontrol
Inventorymanagement
Workstation
Supplier portal
Stores
Planner
Suppliers
Carriers
Third-partlogistics
providers(3PL)
Buyer
Transportationmanager
Data servicesgateway
Other data
Inventorymanagement
Logisticscontrol
Financialmanagement
data mart
Informationwarehouse
Distributorwarehouse
management
Electronicdatainterchange
(EDI)Value-addednetwork(VAN)
or internet
Proactiveaction
1
2
3
4
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An SOA Virtual Command Center delivers
timely operational data from existing busi-
ness applications to the designated supply
chain constituents, providing visibility as well
as proactive monitoring and notification (see
Figure 5). Events received from planning andexecution systems are correlated to deter-
mine if any out of tolerance situation has
occurred (reactive) or might occur in the near
future (proactive). Intelligent agents, based
upon business rules, provide detection and
alert notification mechanisms. The Virtual
Command Center fuses realtime informa-
tion, event processing and advanced analytic
technologies to integrate planning, operations,
intelligence and collaboration, by:
Integratingandsynchronizingend-to-end
supply chain information among parties
Bringingtogetherpertinentdataonevents
to monitor activities and performance and to
facilitate shared decision making
Providingvisibilitytoevents,alertsand
performance indicators displayed on
personalized dashboards a virtual control
tower for monitoring activities
Aggregatingorsegmentinginformation
for trend analysis, automating business
rules and recommending actions based on
performance criteria.
Systems
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
FIGURE 5.
Virtual command center.
Common display services
Shipment
monitoringservicesScanning receipt
and shipment
Gateway
Suppliersand serviceproviders Customers
Operationsand dispatch
Sales andengineering Procurement
Enterpriseusers/helpdesk
External users Internal users
Premisesserver
Radio-frequency
identication(RFID)server
Supply chain
hub(weather,news)
Enterprise service busMessagebusEvent/messagebrokerWebservicesgatewayMQ
Tamper-resistantembedded controller
(TREC)
Sensors/microcontroller
Truckingcompany
RFID barcode
Data sources
Operationaldata miningand analysis
Partsordering
Supply chainoptimization
analytics
Servicesand partsdispatch
EnterpriseResourcePlanning
packages(ERP)
The SOA Virtual
Command Center
delivers operational
data and correlates
event information
to determine if any
are out of tolerance.
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9 Blueprint for supply chain visibility
SOA makes this type of enablement possible.
The services are the events with repeat-
able and standardized integration definitions.
SOA allows business applications to place
discrete events on the Enterprise Services
Bus (an entity that connects the services).Event management services collect, cleanse,
aggregate and store the discrete events.
Process management services allow events
to trigger or be used by business processes,
which map events to operational metrics and
key performance indicators (KPIs). The KPIs
are monitored by the process monitoring
component. Sense-and-respond adaptive
control algorithms will use a combination of
business rules and other decision-support
methodologies to trigger event and process
management instances. Events are analyzed
by priority through business analysis services.
All of the components are managed by a
set of role-based dashboards. Collaboration
services manage interactions with other
processes and systems within or across
enterprises.
In other words, SOA provides the means to
increase control through visibility and excep-
tion detection across global supply chains.
A roadmap to SOA-enabled supplychain visibilityAs managers look to improve their operations
to enhance performance, it is likely they often
feel the painful reality that changes will never
come soon enough. They feel the frustration
of either constantly initializing new projects
with little effect until its too late to meet rapid
market changes, or having to respond to infor-
mation they wish they had sooner. This should
prompt a question and challenge to supply
chain management leadership: How can I
update and improve my technology capabilities
in a way that is fast enough to meet business
needs and in a way that doesnt destroy my
existing and ongoing investments?
We believe the answer lies in services, the
fundamental building blocks for SOA. Services
are pieces of application functionality that
represent a repeatable, categorically contain-
able business task. An example may be
update supplier account or verify shipment
status (see Figure 6).
The service is only built and maintained in
one place. Other applications can access
this service and incorporate it into their own
functionality. For example, the more complexapplications of order management or ship-
ping and delivery fulfillment must both utilize
a function to update a customers information.
In this case, both the order and shipping appli-
cation would call upon the same customer
information service to complete the task. The
benefit of this is that the common function only
needs to be built once, maintenance of the
service does not need to be duplicated, and
when the service is upgraded, all user applica-
tions and systems receive the upgrade. This
usage is considered service orientation.
In turn, a service-oriented architectureis a
technological design discipline that uses
service orientation and standards to plan,
build, manage and enable information and
technology. SOA also allows for greater flexi-
bility moving forward. It is often faster to deploy
and upgrading does not require wholesale
replacement of existing systems or retirement/
replacement of the current generation. This
eliminates the need to constantly start from
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10 IBM Global Business Services
scratch when deploying new systems and
enables companies to realize the value and
ROI of past investments.
A sound approach to building an SOA trans-
formation plan for supply chain visibility canhelp provide both technical and organizational
success. Our recommended approach to this
end includes:
Develop a comprehensive, top-down strategy
for SOA: Create a vision and strategy for SOA
a governance model and a multiphased
implementation roadmap to guide the trans-
formation of the supply chain and supporting
systems toward a service-oriented model.
Conduct a diagnostic: Assess the current state
of service orientation and integration and the
desired or future state for a line of business
or enterprise. Conduct a business process and
architecture health check for projects adopting
SOA. This should include an SOA maturity
assessment, an SOA business process review
and an SOA technical review.
Develop an implementation plan: Establish
the high-level solution architecture overview,
defining the scope in terms of process,
service, security and governance. A robust
implementation plan is necessary for
successful realization of the SOA solution. It
should include a refined a high-level SOA solu-
tion architecture, an SOA governance modeland a detailed implementation plan.
Partsand rawmaterials
Demand/supply
synchron-ization
Third-partyaccount
Businessunit strategy
Saleshistory
Inventorymanage-
ment
Package/bundle
awareness
Customerevent
history
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
FIGURE 6.
Supply chain visibility component services.
Supplychain
behaviormodels
Order
Financialfacility
Supplieraccount
Correspon-dence
Productcatalog
Partneragreement
Suppliereventhistory
Supplierbase
Marketingresearch
Goodsstorage
Productschedule
Customerbase
Third-partyevent
history
Third-partybase
Customeraccount
Supplierentitlement
Manufact-ured goods
Payments
Eventdetection
handling
Transport
Customerentitlement
Import/export
manage-ment
Manufac-ture/
assembly
makesheet
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11 Blueprint for supply chain visibility
Define the SOA lifecycle management
process: Define a suite of business process
management and SOA services that comple-
ment the application implementation lifecycle
in every stage of SOA design, development,
integration, implementation and manage-ment. This should include as is business
processes, future business processes, a
process assessment and analysis (future and
as is), and a high-level service model.
Careful assessment, planning and research
can go a long way to craft a smart, low-risk
path forward.
SOA benefits: Responsiveness,flexibility and performance
Collaboration and visibility (internal andexternal, local and global), are becoming a top
priority. In a recent global value chain study,
conducted by IBM, we found that 50 percent
of the surveyed companies collaborate with
partners supply chains, meaning that they
have a programmatic and technology-enabled
relationship.1 Having visibility and collabora-
tion capabilities removes many of the latency
problems inherent in traditional global supply
chain communications. Managers are able
to monitor progress across the supply chainboth upstream and downstream and make
decisions that can affect performance in a
meaningful and timely way.
Visibility and collaboration have serious tech-
nology, software and data implications. Most
companies struggle with sharing information
across their own functional groups, divisions
and geographies. Adding complex supplier,
manufacturing and logistics networks magni-
fies these problems. It may be easy to imagine
how these problems could be solved with
provocative solutions, such as realtime collab-
oration and information integration or visibility
to supply chain and customer events. But the
reality is that current systems cannot always
be rapidly adapted to fulfill this vision; suchchanges could require great expense and
long timeframes.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) can
enable companies to more rapidly respond to
market and operational impetus. It can also
help reduce the lag time and the investment
needed to make technological improvements
while preserving (and, in fact, optimizing)
the investments of the past. The benefits, we
believe, are significant.
ResponsivenessRealtime visibility of supply chain trans-
actional event information allows rapid
identification of root causes of issues.
Proactively monitoring ongoing supply chain
information and events can advise managers
of potential out of tolerance situations before
they occur. SOA can provide standardized
integration and helps accelerate the deploy-
ment of new functionality. Pre-built service
components can be combined and reused
for rapid business process composition,
application development and deployment in
response to market change.
FlexibilityThe ability to dynamically adapt to supply
chain shocks through end-to-end visibility and
proactive exception management allows for
greater flexibility.SOA can allow the organiza-
tion to be more flexible in the capabilities it
builds, providing for more options with greater
integration.
Visibility andcollaboration
capabilities allow
monitoring upstream
and downstream
progress across the
supply chain.
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12 IBM Global Business Services
PerormanceThe ability to detect exceptions and alert
affected parties to drive resolution in real-
time, along with monitoring KPIs, provides a
scorecard to constantly improve end-to-end
supply chain activities. SOA can help legacyand enterprise systems to continue to provide
value in the functions that they perform, while
integrating with reusable services to collabo-
rate in different environments.
Supply chain management leaders may now
be able to achieve new responsiveness and
flexibility while improving the performance
equation. Companies can assemble the capa-
bilities they need in new and different ways.
Now, companies dont have to operate their
supply chains in a vertically integrated way.A customer-driven, networked and globally
integrated supply chain is the future model
for many companies. This innovation requires
visibility and the ability to make changes flex-
ibly and SOA can make this possible.
About the authorKaren Butner is the Supply Chain
Management Lead for the IBM Institute for
Business Value, and an Associate Partner in
the IBM Supply Chain Management practice.
She focuses on strategy and transformationcompetencies. Additionally, she is responsible
for managing the development and deploy-
ment of the Supply Chain Management Global
Solutions Portfolio a collection of integrated
business, technology and organizational solu-
tions to support the broad and diversified,
multi-industry client base of IBM. She has
more than 25 years of experience in supply
chain management business practices and
strategies. Her concentration over the past
several years has been assisting clients in the
high-technology, retail and consumer prod-
ucts, electronics, transportation and logistics
industries develop strategies and improvement
agendas to gain significant value through
transforming their global supply chain perfor-
mance. She can be reached at kbutner@
us.ibm.com.
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13 Blueprint for supply chain visibility
The Right Partner for a ChangingWorldAt IBM Global Business Services, we
collaborate with our clients, bringing together
business insight, advanced research and
technology to give them a distinct advantagein todays rapidly changing environment.
Through our integrated approach to business
design and execution, we help turn strategies
into action. And with expertise in 17 industries
and global capabilities that span 170 countries,
we can help clients anticipate change and
profit from new opportunities.
Reference1 IBM Institute for Business Value executive
brief. Scoring High on the Supply Chain
Maturity Model. November, 2006.
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GBE03195-USEN-01
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